A BETTING shop punter has told of his horror after police were called when he went to collect thousands of pounds in winnings.
The gambler, named Michael, says he was shocked to find William Hill staff didn’t have enough cash to pay him and called cops after triggering an alarm.
Officers left without taking any further action but the customer says he has been kept waiting for the rest of his pay-out from the bookies.
He scooped £12,000 after staking £2,400 on three winning bets, two on tennis matches and the other on a football result.
He first tried to cash in his betting slips at William Hill’s branch in the Starbeck district in Harrogate, North Yorkshire.
They only had £5,500 to hand over – and he went the following day to the firm’s nearby Harrogate Spa outlet to collect the next £6,500.
Yet he says within a minute of asking for his money, staff there called North Yorkshire Police though he insists he had not been rude.
He filmed officers talking to him at the branch and shared a clip on X/Twitter which has now been shared hundreds of times.
He later told MailOnline: “The police were just like, ‘Why are we here?’ and ‘We don’t want to be here’ when they realised the situation.
“It is a massive waste of public funds when serious crimes are going on.”
The footage showed the customer complaining about a cashier, telling officers: “He’s called the police because he’s not got the cash to pay me out.
“He’s had a power trip – I asked him nicely.
“He’s pressed the emergency button to try to humiliate me and he’s got his colleague to call the police on me.”
The punter was given the firm’s customer services contact details.
A police officer on the scene was filmed telling him: “They don’t have the money to pay you.
“You have been given the customer services number – you can sort it out with them.”
A William Hill spokeswoman said the customer would be given his full pay-out.
She said: “It is very important to us that all of our colleagues in retail feel safe at work.
“We have procedures in place to ensure this happens and are working closely with our colleagues in the stores involved to support them following the incident.
“We do not dispute that the customer is owed his winnings but our requests for additional information and processes for dealing with instances such as these are designed to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.”
The firm was in contact with the punter “to support him through this process”, she added.
Elsewhere, a ticket remained unclaimed despite a football punter winning more than £93,000 in a 13-fold bet at a shop in Bishopsgate in London.
Meanwhile, an expert has just revealed his favourite £5 betting sites.
